A novel text steganography technique to Arabic language using reverse fatah

This paper presents a new technique for information hiding in Arabic language. The technique uses text steganography to hi de the information. Considering the existence of Harakat(Fatha, Kasra and Damma) in the languages a new approach of reversing the Fatha has been developed for message hiding.The technique has been also evaluated to ensure its quality. This technique can be applied on other languages like Persian, Sindhi and other Regional language

Trustworthy Federated Learning: A Survey

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a significant advancement in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), enabling collaborative model training across distributed devices while maintaining data privacy. As the importance of FL increases, addressing trustworthiness issues in its various aspects becomes crucial. In this survey, we provide an extensive overview of the current state of Trustworthy FL, exploring existing solutions and well-defined pillars relevant to Trustworthy . Despite the growth in literature on trustworthy centralized Machine Learning (ML)/Deep Learning (DL), further efforts are necessary to identify trustworthiness pillars and evaluation metrics specific to FL models, as well as to develop solutions for computing trustworthiness levels. We propose a taxonomy that encompasses three main pillars: Interpretability, Fairness, and Security & Privacy. Each pillar represents a dimension of trust, further broken down into different notions. Our survey covers trustworthiness challenges at every level in FL settings. We present a comprehensive architecture of Trustworthy FL, addressing the fundamental principles underlying the concept, and offer an in-depth analysis of trust assessment mechanisms. In conclusion, we identify key research challenges related to every aspect of Trustworthy FL and suggest future research directions. This comprehensive survey serves as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners working on the development and implementation of Trustworthy FL systems, contributing to a more secure and reliable AI landscape.Comment: 45 Pages, 8 Figures, 9 Table

Near field communication enabled mobile payments: preliminary study

The ubiquitous computing has made consumers life easy, it has given the new way to interact with family and friends and perform many activities which were impossible in previous time. One of the profound achievement of ubiquitous computing is Mobile Payment and an advanced mode of the mobile payment is the near field communication mobile payment. In this study the authors have proposed theoreti-cal near field communication mobile payment model that is based on extended unified technology acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) .In this paper, the author have performed the pilot study to validate the variables and to verify their reliability among the proposed items. The results has proven that there is a reliability among the items in variables, as the Cronbach’s alpha value for the vari-ables is above or equal to 0.7

The future of data privacy and security concerns in Internet of things

A global, immersive, invisible, ambient network computing environment built through the continued proliferation of smart sensors, cameras, software, databases,and massive data centers in a world-spanning information fabric known as the Internet of Things. The idea is to live in connected world. Altogether varieties of connected objects from smart home appliances like televisions, laundry machines,thermostats, refrigerators to Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) are going to conserve the potential of IoT connectivity in all paces of future smart world. However, it has high importance to preserve adherence of enormous benefits of IoT connectivity, which might lead to unseen security and privacy issues and vulnerabilities that will cause various malicious attacks including waterhole, ransomware, eavesdropping, and others to exploit the potential of smart objects. This paper will present and forecast advanced concepts for end-to end security and privacy issues in a highly distributed, heterogeneous and dynamic network of IoT devices, which may reveal a holistic approach of device identification, authentication, and management, security, and privacy concerns

Measuring educational inequality of opportunity: pupil’s effort matters

The distinction between effort and other factors, such as family background, matters for correcting policies and normative reasons when we appeal to inequality of opportunity. We take advantage of a purposefully designed survey on secondary schools in rural Bangladesh to offer a comprehensive view of the importance of overall effort when measuring inequalities of opportunity in education. The analysis comprises decomposition exercises of the predicted variance of student performance in mathematics and English by source (effort, circumstances, etc.) and subgroup (within- and between-schools) based on parametric estimates of educational production functions. Pupils’ effort, preferences, and talents contribute between 31% and 40% of the total predicted variances in performance scores. The contribution of overall effort falls by 10% when the correlation between effort and circumstances is taken into account. These findings are robust to the choice of estimation strategy (i.e. combined within- and between-schools variation models versus multilevel random-effect models). All in all, these results advocate that social determinism in education can be mitigated by individual effort at school

Social commerce in e-business of Pakistan: opportunities, challenges and solutions

social media make ultimate building blocks in the development of novel approaches in e-business of Pakistan with the conjuncture of Web 2.0 social media has a variety of application domain including social commerce. S-commerce is redesigning modern e-business with promising economic technological and social outcrop. Customers keep their expectations higher always, so precisely all business are trying to exceed the customers' expectations with pre and post-sale interaction on social networking sites like face book or Twitter accounts. Customers can interact, look and compare company products, reviews and feedback in their social circle friends of friends of friends. This paper proposes a survey about prospects of social commerce in e-business of Pakistan. In addition, this paper would proposes research framework for foster future e-business opportunities, challenges and provide a solution to build up buyers trust as well as to enhance the interactive online buying process in local e-business of Pakistan using social media

Characterization of Municipal, Construction and Demolition Wastes for Energy Production Through Gasification - A Case Study for a Portuguese Waste Management Company

Gasification of wastes is considered a promising alternative for energy generation due to its lower environmental impacts when compared with conventional landfilling and incineration. Valorisation of such wastes improves sustainability of resource management and of energy production. However, an appropriate characterisation of wastes in terms of physical and chemical properties is essential for the prediction of their behaviour during gasification, allowing to identify possible problems for the environment and installed equipment and also to define which materials present a greater energy potential. This study aimed to characterise 10 different fractions from municipal, construction and demolition wastes received in different fluxes by a Portuguese waste management company. These fractions included wood (44.83 wt%), plastic (22.15 wt%), paper/card (0.04 wt%), mixtures of paper and plastic (14.67 wt%) and sewage sludge (18.31 wt%). For this purpose, determination of density, proximate and ultimate analysis, higher heating value (HHV), thermogravimetric profiles and inorganic composition of ashes were performed for each fraction. Analysis revealed that plastics and their mixtures with paper/card possess the highest HHV’s (25–45 MJ/kg db), thus exhibiting a greater capacity for energy production. High levels of ashes found in dried sewage sludge (50 wt % db) indicate that a lot of by-product will be generated after gasification, possibly increasing the treatment costs. A gasification unit operating at 50 kg/h and admitting a mixture of all these wastes would generate 109.7 kW of total power, having capacity to receive more waste fluxes along the year.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Patient perspectives on online medication information seeking in Uganda: a cross-sectional exploration

This study explores pharmacists’ experiences and attitudes towards online medical information shared with them by their patients. A self-administered online survey questionnaire was designed and administered to 113 pharmacists within Kampala metropolitan, Uganda. The survey results highlight growth in patients’ inquiries about online acquired medication-related information from their pharmacists (n=105, 93%). Pharmacists highlighted that this online information-seeking behaviour enhances patients’ understanding of treatment. While generally, pharmacists in Uganda hold a positive attitude towards this trend, they, however, raised some concerns over the inaccuracy of online medication-related information presented to them by their patients 66 (58%), the internet promotion of unnecessary fear and worry about medication n=96 (92%), and the tendency for patients to take up more of the pharmacists’ time during their visits (n=68, 60%). Finally, this study revealed that pharmacist gender (r=0.722, t=9.078, p=0.000) and pharmacy ownership status (r=0.504, t=4.107, p=0.000) had a statistically significant relationship with pharmacists’ attitude towards patients’ acquisition of online medication-related information. Conclusively, this study shows that pharmacists in Kampala (Uganda) have a generally positive view of the online medication-related information-seeking by patients. This result suggests that technology use, specifically the Internet, in addressing healthcare needs is embraced in Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, this research contributes to the literature exploring online perceptions and attitudes towards medication related information-seeking among pharmacists

Effect of natural weathering on water absorption and pore size distribution in thermally modified wood determined by nuclear magnetic resonance

Funder: Teollisuusneuvos Heikki Väänänen's FundFunder: International Thermowood AssociationFunder: Quantum Institute, University of OuluAbstractThermally modified wood (TMW) is widely used in outdoor applications due to its advanced properties towards weathering stresses. Although the structure changes of TMW from weather factors have been reported, investigation of the quantitative analysis of water states and cell wall structure of TMW after weathering is limited. In this work, the amount of bound water, fiber saturation point (FSP), cell wall pores, and free water distribution of thermally modified Scots pine, Norway spruce, and European ash were measured before and after a 2-year natural weathering via NMR relaxometry, cryoporometry, and magnetic resonance imaging. The results show that weathering increased T2 relaxation time of lumens, indicating the degradation of tracheids and vessels, especially in TMW compared to unmodified wood. The amounts of bound water, FSP value, and cell wall pores were increased after weathering; however, an increase in thermal modification intensity resulted in lower FSP and limited the increase in number of pores. In summary, TMW showed better performance than unmodified wood after weathering.</jats:p